Jain Journal 1982 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 39

OCTOBER, 1982
and speak highly of their cultural activities throughout the course of Indian history. Notable amongst these was Anupamadevi. The accounts of Sridevi and Anupama show the high status and regard accorded to all deserving women by the society of their times.
In the south, Karnataka saw a number of ladies who promoted the cause of the Jaina faith, built temples etc. and performed the vow of sallekhana (death by fasting), which is considered an act of the highest merit. During the reign of the Rastrakuta king Krsna II, a lady, Jakkiyabbe by name, was appointed nälgāvunda (district officer) of Nagarkhanda 70, in her deceased husband's place (c. 911 A.D.). Skilled in the art of good government, and faithful to the Jaina tenets this fair and brave lady protected Nagarkhanda 70, and ultimately thinking that worldly pleasures were insipid, died by sallekhanā.15
Attimabbe, the wife of Mallappa, who was the commander of the Western Calukya suler Tailapa (A.D. 973-97), was an ideal devotee who had a thousand copies of Ponna's Santi Purāļa made at her own expense, besides, one thousand five hundred images of gold and jewels.16
Lakkale, the wife of the celeberated Jaina general Ganga Raja, is described in a record as “the lady of policy in business" and "the lady of victory in battle” to her husband Ganga Raja. She erected a new Jaina shrine at Sravana Belgola in c. 1118 A.D.17 and was a "mine of auspiciousness”, so called on account of her numerous gifts of food, shelter, medicine and learning. The saintly figure of Santaladevi, the queen of the Hoysala king Visnuvardhanadeva (c. 1123 A.D.), is eulogized in epigraphic records as an expert in singing, instrumental music and dancing and was also renowned for her beauty. She also delighted in making gifts of the above kind and in the erection of Jaina shrines, which earned for her the titles, "crest jewel of perfect faith” and “rampart of the Jaina faith.”'18
Reprinted from Great Women of India.
16 Epigraphica Carnatica, Vol. 7, pp. 130-1. 16 Rice, Karnataka Sabdanusasana, Intro., pp. 28 ff, Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society, 1883, pp. 301 ff. 17 Epigraphica Carnatica, Vol. 2, pp. 57-8. 18 Epigraphica Carnatica, Vol. 2, pp. 60, 75; Saletore, Mediaeval Jainism, pp. 165.ff.